1856.] Our Views and Reviews. 63 



receptacle of wicker-work beneatli receives the top of the head. No wonder, 

 thought I, when I examined this novel contrivance to keep out the rain, that 

 they prefer to go bare-headed. 



Their shoes are very rudely constructed, being simply sandals of plaited straw 

 held on by a thong or latch, which fits between the two large tops. Their feet 

 are encased in a kind of stockings, made of white cotton cloth, room being left 

 between the toes for the thong of the shoe to catch readily. 



On entering any of the cabins, or private apartments of the officers, the san- 

 dals were left at the door, their owner walking in in his stocking feet. Thus 

 there were often fifty or sixty pairs of sandals in the little ante-chamber o the 

 commodore's cabin. 



The fan seemed to be universally in use with them. From the highest to the 

 lowest, all, walking or sitting, talking, eating, or saluting, had a fan in their 

 hands. It is applied to the most various and different uses. Did the sun shine : 

 the fan performed the office of a parasol ; were they eating : morsels of food 

 were presented to friends upon a fan ; did one desire to make a memoran- 

 dum of some object striking his attention: the fan serves as an extempore 

 writing-desk, on which to lay the note-book ; was it necessary to drive overboard 

 some over-curious boatman : the fan, now transformed into an instrument of pun- 

 ishment, showers blows upon the back of the offending serf. In short, the fan is 

 evidently used anywhere and everywhere, on and for all occasions." 



When we read ^'IIoiv the Commander Cured a Lad of Chewing Tobacco,''^ we almost 

 invoked the presence of such an Autocrat on shore, to apply a similar remedy to 

 the "land-lads " who go about " larding the green earth ''with the foul and ful- 

 some saliva, whose secretion they provoke by the foul and fulsome "weed." 

 Here is the " Commander's prescription,^' as administered to '• the boys " on 

 board a Man of War. 



" There was one species of uncleanliness over which our commander reserved 

 to himself exclusive jurisdiction, and with which, therefore, the master-at-arms 

 never interfered. This was tobacco-chewing. Many of our boys, in the beginning 

 of the cruise, labored under the hallucination, already mentioned as common to 

 tyros in sailor-craft, that to be a true sailor, one must chew tobacco. The com- 

 mander, unfortunately, did not share in this belief, but was, on the contrary, a 

 zealous upholder of the opposite doctrine, and considered no trouble too great, in 

 his efforts to make converts among the boys. Thus, he would come along in the 

 morning, to inspect us, and while walking down the row, apparently looking very 

 steadily at the individuals immediately before him, would catch sight of a boy at 

 the other end of the line slyly drawing his hand across his face, or emptying his 

 mouth of a quantity of saliva. Nothing would be said, until he arrived opposite 

 the devoted tobacco-chewer, when : 



♦« Master-at-arms, come this way — smell this boy's breath." To the boy : 



" Boy, breathe in his face." This done, and the look of disgust on poor Jemmy 

 Legs' countenance giving forth unmistakeable evidence of the presence of the 

 forbidden weed ; the commander would say, very good-naturedly : 



" Master-at-arms, go and get some sand, and soap, and canvas." And then to 

 the boy: " Now, my lad, you ought to know, for I have told you all that tobacco 

 is a very injurious thing, and that I, who have the care of your welfare, would be 

 doing you a serious wrong to permit you to acquire so filthy a habit as chewing 



